What Was Romney Thinking?

If he had settled for an attack puppy like Tim Pawlenty rather than controversial Paul Ryan, the GOP standard bearer would not be facing new questions about his wealth, taxes and social insensitivity.

“Instead of a referendum on his own performance,” political strategists point out, “the president has an opening to turn the election into a referendum on the vision that Mr. Ryan has advanced and Mitt Romney has adopted.”

What was the usually cautious contender thinking?

“Romney, the turnaround artist, decided that he needed to turn around his own campaign,” suggests New York Times resident wonk Nate Silver, adding that the President “will no longer have to stretch to evoke the specter of Congress and its 15 percent approval rating…he will be running against a flesh-and-blood embodiment of it.”

Under a Ryan budget, another critic snipes, underscoring the tax release controversy, Romney would have owed only 0.82 percent of his $21 million income in 2010 rather than the 13.9 he paid.